


For Thirty Sesterces

by cleverqueen



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Highlander: The Series
Genre: 5+1 Things, 6+1 really, Crossover, Gen, brief mentions of all the legends crew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6681277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleverqueen/pseuds/cleverqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five firsts (six actually) that Methos has with the Legends, and one last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Thirty Sesterces

**1\. Methos meets Rip**

The first time Methos meets Rip Hunter, he’s barely a thousand years old (he thinks). He’s working as a guard in the Temple of Horus, and a strange man in a thick leather coat and finely woven trousers is attacking Hath-Set.

The strange man is yelling about protecting his wife and child, and seems determined to kill Hath-Set. But when his opening comes, the man doesn’t take it. Hath-Set laughs his obnoxious laugh, through teeth too white and too perfect to be anything other than gods’ blessed or Immortal.

Methos knows Hath-Set isn’t Immortal. His presence doesn’t vibrate under Methos’ skin like a scarab.

So when Hath-Set orders the temple guards to take away this “gareeb” and kill him, Methos joins in. He does his job and fulfills the orders of the blessed one as best he can. His staff blows fall heavily, herding the stranger away from Hath-Set and the holy Horus relics.

If Methos had known then what Hath-Set would later do to the Priestess Chay-Ara, he would have beheaded the man himself instead of chivvying the stranger out into the night.

**2\. The Legends meet Methos**

The first time the Legends meet Methos, it’s at a command performance of “As You Like It” for Queen Elizabeth I. The Legends have heard that Vandal Savage (AKA Lady Jane Grey’s spiritual advisor) plans to dethrone the queen that very afternoon.

Ray asks Stein why the play is being performed in the afternoon, only to receive a derisive look from Heatwave who explains that no one has invented artificial lighting for theatre performances just yet. (The “dummy” is implied.)

The round stadium seating excites Jax, and Stein happily lectures all who will listen on “theatre in the round” and “the origins of the phrase ‘peanut gallery.’” Sara nudges an unwashed man in rags in order to make space for the team to sit, and she offers the local an orange as apology. (He snatches it from her hand like he thinks she’ll take it away in half a second. Oranges—sweet and sweet-smelling—are for the rich, and this is the freshest orange he’ll ever see in his life. His fingernails slice into the rind, spraying citric acid into his face, and he relaxes at her side.)

The Legends push and shove each other, complaining about the arrangements and trading perfumes and oranges with everyone around them, when a slender man with a Roman nose stalks up the nearest aisle and leaps onto Rip’s back.

Sara rockets to standing, ready to take the guy down, but he’s already swung himself around Rip’s shoulders so that they’re face to face.

“You!” The man points an accusatory finger at Rip.

Rip takes a tiny step back, bumping into Captain Cold who’s standing beside him, hand in his pocket where there’s probably a gun. “Ah, yes?”

The man decks Rip across the jaw. Rip’s head jerks, and a splatter of blood forms at the side of his mouth. The man is breathing hard.

“You owe me thirty sesterces, thou clay-brained whoreson!”

Sara has a staff end poking into the man’s stomach, and Cold’s giant gun is pointed at his face (not that the man can understand what kind of danger that weapon entails).

Cold powers up his piece, and the hum is too quiet to be heard over the pre-show crowds, but the blue charging lights turn the area around him into an eerie fairyland. “I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations is out on sesterces,” he mocks. Even in the 1500s, sesterces are over a millennium out of date. This has to be another time traveler.

Mick snorts. “Or else the Time Mangler here owes a lot of interest.”

The man growls. “I got _sold_ into _slavery_ for a debt I couldn’t pay.”

Cold may not have a moral code like Atom or Scarlet, but sending someone into slavery isn’t something he holds with. Not when he can prevent it. “We could keep an eye out for when this happens,” he says. He sounds sympathetic, but his cold gun doesn’t waver.

The man narrows his eyes, gaze flitting between Cold’s gun and Rip’s anachronistic belts. He screws up his mouth as he contemplates Cold’s offer, then his whole body loosens.

Sara removes her staff from his belly, and Cold lowers his gun. This guy isn’t going to attack them again.

“No thanks,” he says. “What kind of person would I be now if I hadn’t been in the places I went to then?”

“I’m sorry,” Rip says, but he’s not apologizing for the sesterces or the slavery, only for the interruption. “Do I know you?” (Obviously, he does or will do.)

 

**3\. Methos takes a time trip**

The first time Methos travels with the Legends, he doesn’t get to use his expertise in time-appropriate clothing and mannerisms.

They pick him up in Seacouver, 2016, and this time he doesn’t punch Rip. He just catalogues their jackets and weapons, then laughs. He recognizes their outfits because he drew them painstakingly by candlelight (and with faithful reproductions after the Great Basement Storage Leak of 1997).

Ray earnestly tells him they need a local guide in their travels because Savage keeps finding them before they’re ready. But Methos knows what’s really happening here: they just met him at the Globe, and they’ve realized that he’s useful as either an Immortal or a fellow time traveler. (He’s not sure which they think he is.)

 _Macleod_ never gets asked to time travel, even if he did have to deal with a demon once.

It’s the work of a bare hour for Methos to pack a bag, lose his Watcher, and join the crew on the Waverider. Rip immediately orders him to strap in because they’re heading for Sinai, 802 C.E.

The ship shudders to a halt, and Methos gets a horrible headache like all the hangovers his body has shaken off have just caught up.

“It’s time lag,” says Stein knowingly.

Sara flips Stein off so that Methos doesn’t have to, for which he’s grateful.

A woman in a loose-fitting silk coat over blue-printed baggy trousers is waiting outside. Her sword looks like a half-machete/half-falchion (though they shouldn’t be popular yet), and the wide blade tip is already aimed at Methos when he steps off the Waverider’s ramp.

“In the end, there can be only one,” she says.

Methos doesn’t know whether to be thankful or annoyed that he’s challenged as soon as they walk off the ship because he wasn’t anywhere near Sinai during the 700-900s and has no idea what people are like or how to act. Why is Savage there?, he wonders.

“I am Ben Adams,” says Methos as he draws his Ivanhoe from beneath his period-correct kaftan. “Hello, Ida.”

Sara makes a strangled noise in the back of her throat. _Over the hidden sword or because Methos knows this woman?_

“Who’s Ida?” asks the woman. She doesn’t wait for an answer, but raises the falchion over her head and rushes toward Methos.

It’s a smart move. The Ivanhoe has more reach, so someday-to-be-named-Ida needs to close in quickly before Methos has the chance to sweep her away.

It _would_ be a smart move, that is, if the Legends could stay out of each other’s fights. Everyone knows that swords and staves and daggers are _Sara’s_ department, so she glides forward before Methos can tell her no. In moments, Sara has Ida on the defensive, her own sword appearing from out of nowhere to clash and clang.

In the whirling game of assassin versus immortal, assassin is winning.

“The heck with this,” says Heatwave and promptly torches Ida.

Sara leaps out of the way just in time. “What the hell?”

Kendra shakes her head sadly. “I think you killed her.”

“Meant to.”

Ida moans, and Stein moves towards her like he intends to look after her, but Methos puts a staying hand on his chest. What would Stein do, after all?

“Perhaps we should try another time,” says Rip. “This one appears full already.”

They all troop back onto the ship. Whatever the day’s mission was, it goes unfulfilled.

At least this explains why Ida has always hated him. He doesn’t care much for resurrecting after burn-death either, no matter how fast Heatwave made step one.

 

**4\. They kill Vandal Savage**

The first (and only) time Methos helps to kills Vandal Savage, only a few Legends are involved.

He confers with Leonard Snart first, to fabricate the plan. (The man reminds him of himself at that age, or maybe a little older.) Slowly, he gets buy-in from the rest of his tiny team: Sara Lance, Mick Rory, Kendra Saunders. And then the five of them use what they know of temporal mechanics and go back to just before the first time Methos met Rip.

Methos sees himself patrolling the front passages of Horus’ temple. His earlier self is bare-chested and oiled and looks bored as all Duat. “I look so young,” he whispers to his companions, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you run across yourself from an earlier era, isn’t it?

Sara tosses a rock in young Methos’ direction, and they have a showdown.

It’s not really a showdown. Methos says hi to himself and asks to please be let through. He finds himself surprisingly amenable, or maybe not so surprising since it’s easy to prove that he’s him. Also, younger Methos dislikes Hath-Set (AKA Savage) and is happy to be paranoid about him.

With a local accomplice, everything goes as easy as one of Isis’ own spells. Heatwave stays with the young Methos to keep anyone from stumbling upon the plot and interfering. Sara sweeps Savage in hand-to-hand combat. Cold keeps a look out for anyone who needs assistance and continues to check that the jump ship is clear.

Savage lies on the dusty floor, his dark eyes wide. “Protect me!” he orders Methos (who is not a guard). “Who are these defilers of the temple?” he demands of Kendra (who is not Priestess Chay-Ara).

Methos wraps his hand around Kendra’s, which is itself wrapped around _the dagger_. (No point taking any chances.) “You don’t have to do this alone,” he says.

She gives him a small smile with pink, glossy lips, but her eyes are sad and almost as old as his own. “I’m never alone,” she says. Together, they plunge the dagger into Hath-Set’s heart.

Kendra moans, tiny and short, and Methos does her the courtesy of not noticing. Her jeans are soaked with Savage’s blood, turning blacker with every oxidizing moment.

She can have her breakdown later. Now is not the time.

Sara clearly has the same thought because she dusts her hands off and says, “There. Done. Now let’s go because Mick and the youngest Legend can’t hold the guards off forever.”

 _The youngest Legend_. Even in 1700 B.C.E., Methos is older than all of them.

When they return to the Waverider, Rip hugs them with tears in his eyes. Jax, Ray, and Stein are another matter entirely.

“Who are you people?” asks Stein.

“Dude, where are we?” Jax is quick to add.

Ray nods along, equally bewildered.

 

**5\. The Time Masters’ Orphanage**

The first time Methos goes to the orphanage to collect the Legend’s younger selves, Matron Mary says, “Hello, Piers. Haven't seen you in a few centuries.”

Which gives him an approximate date for this place that’s hidden in space and time.

 

**6\. Rogue Immortal**

The first time Methos agrees to join a brotherhood since leaving the Horsemen, he’s not in charge. Cold and Heatwave may not agree on many things, but they do know they like Methos. Methos is a planner and a killer, and they tell him that the way he’d stolen body oil from himself in 1700 B.C.E. (because he missed the scent) was legendary.

Methos is not-so-secretly pleased by this. He hadn’t thought anyone noticed his pickpocketing.

For these reasons, the criminals extend their invitation.

Mick says, “You should come join us. Central City, 2016.”

Len adds, “If the timeline splinters and we don’t remember you, you may as well come earlier. 2014 should be a good year.”

They make plans to use Methos’ graceful thieving abilities on an emerald heist when an exhibit comes through the Central Museum in April 2017. They download predictions and history lessons from Gideon so that they’ll know when to steal, and when to protect their city.

Mick shares beer and offers to make him a motorcycle. (He reminds Methos of Silas.) Len asks questions about Methos’ skills and also about how he got those skills (like a therapist and an general and Joe, all rolled into one). Methos has missed this level of in-group friendship.

He’s looking forward to being a Rogue in Central City 2016.

First, though, they stop off in 1925. The kids are in the cargo hold, and half the legends are completely confused, but Rip is determined to stop and check on something that Vandal Savage supposedly set up but which might not actually be attributable to him.

It’s complicated, and he refuses to explain it.

So the rest of them find a speakeasy. Of course. Methos knows all the dances, and Sara can drink any man under the table.

Though, after two drinks, she asks where Talia is.

They end up in the inevitable bar brawl, fists flying and quips flyting. A bottle smashes on the counter, and Methos darts into its wielder’s way, protecting his new brothers with his body.

When Methos stands back to back with Len, ready to take on the fighters together, Mick rips him away. “Who’re you?” Mick yells.

Halfway into the brawl, and the only people Len and Mick recognize are each other. Sara enjoys fighting, but she’s not watching any of their backs. There’s been a timeline reset somewhere, and Methos is the only one who knows.

Damn Rip and whatever he wandered off to in 1925.

They win the brawl.

 

**Plus 1. The last time**

The last time Methos sees Rip Hunter, the man drops him back in Seacouver, 2016. (Not Central City with Rogues who don’t know him, don’t need him.) He likes linearity, thanks so much.

He texts Mac to say how much he misses beer and to hint that they should get together for a pint. Mac is familiar and real and still here. Chatting with him will ease the fresh ache of outliving his previous homes.

He wonders if he can share details of this little excursion with anyone. Is there an Immortal left who remembers Egypt? Who can share his joy at lifting old-school oil?

Maybe, maybe not.

For now, he needs a drink to mourn the brothers he’s lost. He’s lived. He’s grown stronger. And he’s ready to make friends again another day.

**Author's Note:**

> I still don't have a beta in this fandom, so all the mistakes (and missed chances for it to be much cooler) are mine. If anyone wants to volunteer for future works, come chat on tumblr: [cleverqueen](http://cleverqueen.tumblr.com/).


End file.
